Updated

Updated · CBS New York · Sep 16

NASA Finds 728-Foot Moon Crater From 2024 Impact, a Rare Event Seen Once Every 132 Years

Updated

Updated · CBS New York · Sep 16

NASA Finds 728-Foot Moon Crater From 2024 Impact, a Rare Event Seen Once Every 132 Years

3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Sep 16

728-foot-wide images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed a steep-sided lunar crater formed between April 11 and May 22, 2024, by an asteroid or comet fragment roughly the size of a three- to six-story building.
The strike went undetected in real time from Earth and space, and LRO's wide-angle images were not recognized until August 2025; detailed follow-up last fall and confirmation this year led to two studies in Science Advances.
141 feet deep and three times larger than LRO's previous recent-impact record holder, the crater is the solar system's largest known fresh impact site and blasted debris across more than 66 miles of lunar surface.
A 4-mile-wide cold spot around the crater suggests the impact loosened topsoil, reinforcing evidence that lunar regolith is churned faster than thought and helping NASA assess ejecta risks for its planned moon base.

Sources

CBS New York6h ago

NASA LRO Discovers Moon Crater Bigger Than Roman Colosseum from Recent Impact

NBC News9h ago

NASA LRO Discovers New 728-Foot Moon Crater from Recent Impact

Inquirer.net9h ago

New 'Once in a century' Moon crater discovered by NASA scan

13 Sources

How did a massive asteroid strike that carved a record-breaking crater on the Moon in 2024 go completely undetected by Earth's astronomers?

Could the violent debris scattered by rare, massive lunar impacts threaten the survival of NASA's future permanent bases on the Moon?

With thousands of unseen meteoroids striking the Moon yearly, are our current space monitoring systems dangerously blind to emerging cislunar threats?